The next chapter of Axugaem2 is finally here! This one's a lot wider than it is long, and by that I mean there's a LOT more side content than story content with this update, but there's still plenty to explore and do!  Thank you all so much for your support and interest, and enjoy the update!!

Axugaem2: Pandara's Box - Patch 0.7.0, July 28th 2022: Enter the Night Market!

-Capital City in its entirety can now be explored! The largest city in Central Imperium is a place where several quest/storylines converge, and will allow you to progress with established questlines such as the Anya Fan Club and Evelyn Jr, to name just a couple. It also contains several new quests, character interactions, bits of relationship content, secrets and so on!

-Ironroot Castle's Ground Floor and Throne Room can now be explored! The Ground Floor contains the Royal Kitchen, which houses some new relationship content for Claire and Vespa! The Throne Room is where you can interact with Queen Raziel (more interactions will be added here in future updates.)

  -Added a cooking hub in the Royal Kitchen for Vespa and Claire if they're dating. Assemble the right ingredients to help Vespa prepare the perfect meal!
-The sprawling sewers beneath the city can now be explored as well! In addition to the mysterious Night Market, Capital City's sewer system contains several other points of interest where hidden treasure and potential new questlines can be found!

-Added Karen's Arena, a subterranean colosseum deep within the Capital City Sewers! Complete any of the various combat gauntlets here to earn tokens that can be exchanged for special rewards! The Arena currently features themed gauntlets based on Water, Air, Fire, Pigmen, and Vore (More varieties of gauntlets will be added with coming updates.)

-The Royal Feldwich's Rooftop Gallery now contains artworks that you can view! Featured most prominently are the winners of the last Axu2 Fanart Contest, but there are four other unlockable artworks that will appear after completing specific quests/questlines! More to come in future updates~

-Added a main questline for the Titan Shards to the questlog, starting at the Skyhill Ruins and encompassing all the main objectives for each of the four elemental temples.
  -Added events to the world map and to Capital City that will update the player's quest log to display the main questline on older playthroughs, up to the most recent objective that has been completed. If you saved and quit while in Capital Square, the questline will update automatically. Otherwise, exit to the World Map for the update to take effect.

-Added a questline for the Bloodied Badge mystery in Blightwood, as well as a brief continuation of said questline (It's still unfinished, but will be completable next update.)
 -Added an event to Rotwald that will update the player's quest log to display the new Bloodied Badge questline on older playthroughs, up to the most recent objective that has been completed.

-Added SEVERAL new weapons, pieces of armour, items, and skill tickets. Most of these new items can be found throughout Capital City and the Sewers, or purchased as rewards from specific NPCs in the Arena and Night Market areas.
-EXAMPLE: Skill Ticket - Belch can be purchased from a certain character in the Night Market in exchange for one of two possible combinations of elemental core jewels. This skill can be taught to a number of party members, and changes in power based on factors such as the character's size, weight, and current stomach contents (if voring).
-EXAMPLE 2: Skill Ticket - Obscuring Haze can sometimes be found in the Capital City Flea Market. It grants the new skill Obscuring Haze to Arciella and/or Ashley. This skill hides the user and gives them magic evasion for 7 turns, and it generates 20% TP on use!
-EXAMPLE 3: Karen's Joystick, a new spellblade, can be purchased in Karen's Arena for 10 Arena Tokens. This blade jacks up the wielder's ATK at the cost of some DEF, and grants their physical attacks fire dmg. It also grants several Fire spells and nullifies incoming Ice damage!
 -Added a few little sound effects to the skill ticket items, just for funsies.

-Abby can now equip and use shortarms and claw weapons!

-Claire and Vico can now learn Spell Wave, the ultimate skill for Spellblade wielders. Checking the Special Training option in Bablo's Dojo after completing the new story content in the Night Market will allow you to learn this skill.
-Added a small quest in Bablo's Dojo that can be found in the Training Room after the player has received the letter from Skazili pre-Capital Bridge. The quest will allow a couple of specific characters to learn a useful (and mildly fanservicey) new skill!

-Added a weight gain system for Lani (cue ominous music)
  -Added several standalone pie events to random maps across Imperium. They won't do anything if you chose Nell, but if you chose Lani then find these pies so she can eat them! She demands it!!
  -Added a variable that tracks how many pies Lani has eaten, including both pie events and pie items (but not any pies eaten during an Iron Gut contest, sadly.) A pie board for tracking the variable will show up in the Tent once she has eaten at least one pie event or item.
   -Lani will also gain some weight from other sources, such as eating gallonmelons and winning round two of the Iron Gut contest!
   -Lani is the only character in the game with multiple tiers of weight. The amount of weight she can gain is limited until you reach Ironfruit Jungle, and only pie will trigger an increase in tier. You can also talk to Jimi Bablo on Bablo Isle to help her lose weight!
  -Tweaked Lani's skills Tackle, Rolling Kick, and Double Dragon Kick. Tackle will now deal slightly less damage based on ATK, but will deal more damage based on Lani's DEF. All skills will now deal extra damage based on Lani's weight.
   -Added the odd bit of dialogue to varying scenes involving Lani that will reflect her weight if she's gained some (especially if she's reached the highest weight tier.)
  -The bakery in Capital City sells pie items that (in addition to being Lani fodder) also have some medicinal benefits. The bakery in Del Nyan will not sell pies to Lani until certain conditions involving the Capital City bakery are met. They are rightly terrified of her.

-If Lani switches to the Monk class (aka if she trains in using a quarterstaff), she now learns Project Chakra at level 14.
-If Lani is a fighter, she now learns Piledriver at level 18.

-Ashley and Linda can now equip and use fist/claw weapons!
-Ashley now learns a new skill, Bloodmist, at level 20.
-Bloodmist costs 25 TP. When used, it restores a small amount of MP to the entire party and increases their evasion slightly for 3 turns.

-Added some lines of dialogue for when Caldryn uses Eruption, just for funsies.

-Added a rudimentary crafting system with elemental core jewels and crystal shards! Once you've progressed through enough of the new story content (there isn't much) in the Night Market, a certain character will offer a number of items and equipment in exchange for specific combinations of two core jewels.
-Also added crystal shards for every element which can be combined into core jewels when brought to this same character.

-Crystal shards can be purchased five at a time as arena rewards. They can also occasionally be found in the Flea Market on the second floor of Capital City's Market Tower.
-Elementals, demons, angels, drump shamblers and some more specific enemies now have a small chance to drop a crystal shard of their respective element when defeated.
-Fire Crystal Shards now have a chance to drop from any phoenix block removed by Caldryn.
-Bright Crystal Shards now have a chance to drop from any phoenix block removed by Evelyn.
-Earth and Nature Crystal Shards can now sometimes be mined from mineable enemies.
-A Sonic Elemental near the entrance to Melody Grotto will now trade a Sonic Crystal Shard for ten pieces of Driftwood once Elmira has been recruited.
-A couple of elemental bosses (such as the Knight of Westhaven and General Caldryn) now have a chance to drop core jewels of their respective element when defeated.

-Added some new relics for the Relic Museum.
-Added a variety of visitors to the Relic Museum who will appear as you donate more and more relics.

-Added a small additional area to Blackhand Cove where enemies (and Biri) can be encountered (and grinded, if need be.)
-Bob in Blackhand Cove now sells some weapons that Vespa can equip.

-Maddie will now attempt to eat a party member during the fight with her in Khur (succeeding just changes her sprite to its 'fat' version atm, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to implement anyway.)

-Angelic Commanders can now be visibly fattened using Adipomancy and/or Calorie Bombs!

-Added an option to skip ahead through some of the game's opening (specifically everything between Claire and Abby meeting and the events in the Church of Vexus.)
-Reduced the ATK of Nell slightly during the first fight with her in the Church of Vexus.

-Added a sign to the World Map next to the Sand Swamp with some various directions on it.
-Added two new scarecrows to the world map to remind players that the directions are inverted.
-Added dialogue to the frozen scarecrow in Whiteshore (forgot to add it previously, ooops)
-Added a small event to the Sand Swamp where, if the player crosses one of the bridges in the top left of the Sand Swamp Preserve and hasn't learned Cat Scan yet, a battle will trigger in which Kortis/Arciella will learn Cat Scan. (this encounter will work on older saves too, even those that have already progressed past the Sand Swamp. There'll just be a bit of weird Kortis dialogue during the fight.)
-Added some text to the signs in Ironfruit Farm.

-Updated a few of the Debug Room's features. Added two new teleport options, including a 'safe' option for players who just want to use the room to teach new skills to their party on an old save file.
-IMPORTANT: The new 'safe' teleport option is designed to allow you to save safely after use. HOWEVER, DO NOT USE IT AND SAVE UNLESS YOU accessed the Debug Room from the World Map!! Otherwise it could still bug out the game! Also don't use it if you've been using the Debug Room to fiddle with variables or basically anything other than characters' skills.

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TWEAKS

-Removed a bunch of extraneous files from the Axu2 game folder (this should reduce the size of the folder by a fair bit.)

-Updated the icons for each quest in the quest log based either on difficulty or the questgiver. Generic quests are graded with either a bronze, silver, or gold star. Character-specific quests now display the questgiver's face next to them. (This update will not change the icons for quests that have already been accepted and/or completed.)
-Updated the icons for each Companion Log item to be that character's face (Also updated the icon for Evelyn Jr. to be Evelyn's face because that seemed to make sense.)


-Several claw weapons now come with a chance to apply added status effects on hit (mostly mana burn and poison/venom).
-Buffed Karen's Heat to inflict mana burn on attack as well as grant 20 MAT. Increased the price from 6600 to 8000.
-Increased the MDF bonus of the Bandersnatch Claw weapon and renamed it to Bandersnaxe (to reflect the fact that it's an axe lol).
-Increased the MDF bonus of Esther's Shank from 0 to 3.

-Claire's Essence Gift skill now also removes Mana Burn from an ally. Updated the description to reflect this.
-Increased the cost of Claire's Essence Gift skill from 3 to 6.
-Essence Gift now calculates its HP cost based on the user's MHP instead of their current HP (Meaning it will always take a sixth of the user's HP when cast.)

-Increased the MP cost of Nell's Channel Fury skill from 12 to 20.
-Channel Fury now also generates 10 TP on use.
-Increased the TP generated by Nell's Berserker's Dance skill from 5 to 8 per successful hit.
-Increased the TP generated by Nell's Executioner skill from 5 to 10 per successful hit.
-Nell's skills Bum Rush, Cleave, and Berserker's Dance can now crit.

-Lani's skills Tackle, Rolling Kick, and Double Dragon Kick can now crit.

-Increased the MP drain of Vespa's Keelhaul skill from 10+2*a.MAT-2*b.MDF to 50+2*a.MAT-2*b.MDF

-Ashley's skills Blue Orchid, Weeping Lily, Highland Rose, and Cactus Flower now each generate a small amount of TP per successful hit. Updated their descriptions to reflect this.
-Updated the descriptions of Cedric's skills Weapon Break and Armour Break to note that they also generate a small amount of TP on hit.

-Raised Caldryn's base DEF/MDF and DEF/MDF gain (this will probably only be tangible in playthroughs where Caldryn hasn't been recruited yet.)

-Raised the MP cost of Blessing from 7 to 15.
-Added some misc. spells to the basic staff weapons.

-Reduced the damage of the enemy skill Dirty Water from [4*enemy's ATK -2*Target's DEF] to 3*enemy's ATK -2*Target's DEF].

-All Hammer weapons (except Club) now have a unique attack animation.

-Reworked that one Katana with the name I can't remember how to spell (it's now called Bloodletter Opener and now makes the opponent vulnerable to Thunder on hit.)
-The Reaper's Edge Katana now applies Deathmark on hit (not particularly relevant since there's no way to get it in game atm, but there you have it.)

-Spellblades now each grant resistance to a specific element in addition to their other perks.
-Increased the ATK bonus of the Beaten Spellblade to 25 but decreased the MAT bonus from 5 to 0 (this is to reflect the fact that the Beaten Spellblade results in Earth-based Spell Waves, and Earth-based Spell Waves deal damage based on ATK, not MAT.)
-Increased the value of the Dazzling Spellblade weapon from 6000 to 10000 gold, and the Spellmaster's Blade from 15000 to 20000.
-Increased the ATK bonus of the Sicklebug Blade from 12 to 20, but added a -2 DEF/MDF penalty when equipped.
-Increased the AGI debuff of Shaol'Ra's Belly Brace from -5 to -10.

-Renamed the Del Nyan Red item to Bottle of Kortisian Red and updated Kortis' dialogue in the Ice Water Restaurant to reflect this change.
-Updated the Corn Chowder Recipe item to use a letter template, and added some extra descriptors for immersion.

-Fixed the Gallonmelon not increasing the right weight variable for Nell (and Lani, technically), and reduced the amount added to each variable upon consumption from 4 to 2.

-The Calorie Bomb will now visibly fatten susceptible enemies!

-Renamed the Glutton Pup enemy to Glutton Stripling to more accurately reflect its status relative to other types of gluttons.
-Added a small chance to steal a Shadowbulb from most varieties of Shadowmen.
-Added a small chance to steal a Magic Fire from the Possessed Torchbearer enemy.
-Increased the MHP of Thaddeus Vyle and the Foreman to 2500, and increased Thaddeus Vyle's MAT from 50 to 65.
-Added a chance to steal up to three Blood Vials from Thaddeus Vyle.
-Slightly reduced the ATK and MHP of the Cannibal Rat enemies to make them less of a pain in the butt.

-Eating all 30 demons during the rampage in Kalvarr Prison will now result in a different (larger) Linda sprite being present in the follow-up scene~

-Elmira in the Jolly Jib Inn will now remind the player about meeting her at Windrush Canyon every time you talk to her after you've talked to her with Abby. (Hint Hint.)

-Replaced the Skeleton in the Sand Swamp who is blocking the road to the Thunder Highlands with a Lightning Elemental. Also added some scorch marks to the parts of the Sand Swamp closest to the Thunder Highlands to hopefully make the passageway easier to spot.

-Ovidons will now use sometimes use the new skill Rallying Cry (a special skill that raises the AGI and ATK of party members by one stage), but only when they aren't busy trying to keep someone in their stomach.
-The Foreman now has a unique sprite in battle (it's just the foreman sprite from Axu1 so don't get too excited.)
-Made the Caldryn and Evelyn fights atop Spire a little more difficult.
-Condensed their end of turn dialogue events from turns 2, 4, and 6 to turns 2, 3, and 4.
-Caldryn will now cast Kilnfire during each dialogue event between turns 2 and 4, and Evelyn will now cast Ragefire.
-Caldryn will now cast Eruption at the end of turn 5, and Evelyn will now cast Wall of Fire.
-Reduced Evelyn's MDF from 77 to 67 and increased her MMP from 180 to 187 (During her boss fight).
-Increased General Caldryn's MDF from 65 to 80 and reduced his DEF from 70 to 65 during his boss fight.

-Boh'Redd will now jump in place if you haven't spoken to him yet (this is to reduce the likelihood of players missing him and not having a fishing rod as a result.)
-Boh'Redd will now remind the player of how to get a fishing rod if they don't have one yet when speaking to him after the first time.

-Updated Lamel's face graphic when talking to him in Spire's Hall of Steam, and added some alternate dialogue for if Cross snuck out of Skycastle in his stomach.

-Revised some of the writing for the 'Cat's in the Kettle' quest to fit Vespa's updated lore. Don't kill nekos, folks!
-Updated some of Abby's dialogue when talking about her past to give the player more ability to express how F-ed up Abby's past is.
-Updated some of Cross's dialogue when using Challenge to be more... Cross-like. (Also removed the reference to Claire when the skill is used during the Skycastle segment.)
-Biri no longer calls you Claire in Skycastle (also removed the 'let's chat' option from her event in Skycastle since Cross just ain't her type.)

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BUGFIXES

-Made several small changes to the way the Iron Gut Contests' HUD functions.
-Fixed a bug with the Iron Gut Contests where burping could drop the Bloat Meter below 0 and lead to some confusion. The bloat meter will now automatically adjust to 0 after burping, meaning its visual should be more accurate and responsive and less distracting!
-Additionally, the Bloat Meter will now update automatically after each burp, meaning it should be more accurate when burping a lot.
-All HUD visuals will now disappear properly after each round, regardless of whether you win or lose the round.

-Abby's stances no longer resist eachother (they remove all other stances upon application anyway so the resistances weren't necessary and were causing bugs.)

-Fixed some early quests in the quest log not revealing vital objectives such as the number of a specific item to collect (aka the komodon liver, merfolk fin, etc. quests)
-Fixed the Bubble Breath skill ticket disappearing after use even if nobody can learn it.
-Skill tickets will now properly specify that they can only be taught to ACTIVE party members, aka those that are currently in the formation. (The new skill ticket for Belch is the exception to this rule.)
-Fixed a minor bug with the Earworm skill ticket requiring you to select an arbitrary party member before it can be used.
-Fixed a couple of minor bugs with the Mail Bag item.

-Fixed a minor bug in Grunk Forest where, if you enter the Side Area before crossing the bridge, Abby will still pull you back and tell you to go to the side area when you try to cross.

-Fixed a minor bug involving Abby in the Tent. If, when she asked to talk to Claire at 75 approval or higher, her approval rating was 75 exactly, she wouldn't proceed with the conversation when spoken to. The events in the Tent have been tweaked so that Abby will recognize when her approval rating is exactly 75 (same goes for the later conversation event when her approval rating is exactly 90.)
-Fixed some of Lani's dialogue in the Tent not reflecting the fact that you saved Linda if you talk to her after the Water Temple.
-Fixed a bug where getting Nell fat too early in the game and then talking to her in the Tent would cause her to skip over a lot of dialogue and a quest.
-Similarly, fixed a bug where getting Abby fat prior to the hydra fight in the Sand Swamp would not show up on her sprite in-tent until after her return post-Kalvarr.
-Fixed Clark not actually giving out the Respect for the Dead quest in the Tent and therefore not making it possible to receive the rewards for completing it. (this'll only work on playthroughs where you haven't already done the quest... sorry.)
-Fixed Elmira having a line of dialogue during a conversation with Evelyn if the player has accepted but not completed the Iambic Calamity quest.

-Fixed being able to leave Crabshoot Bay by ferry at night.
-(Hopefully) Fixed a bug with the fog in Kalvarr occasionally causing a stack error and crashing the game.
-Choosing to protect Melissa from Bolero now raises your approval rating with Arci (and humanity in general) by 5. Apparently it didn't before!
-Fixed the visibility in the torch-lighting areas of the Sicklebug Nest and Water Temple resetting to low if the player exits to the world map then returns to those areas.
-Fixed a couple of minor graphical bugs on the Water Temple, 1F map.
-Fixed a very minor bug where using a Brapple on Vexus during the Guscorp Basement segment would bring up Linda dialogue.

-Fixed a minor bug in Khur where leaving during the initial invasion would reset the music to the World Map theme but keep the battle music as the Khur battle theme.
-Fixed the Guscorp Rear Guards and Battle Shamans not having any items to steal.
-Fixed dialogue from Vico showing up in Khur even when you've yet to recruit him.
-Fixed Lamel's face being replaced with Fang's face when talking to him during the first fan club event at Guscorp HQ/the Del Nyan Bakery.

-The ghost of fat Nell no longer appears in Bablo's Dojo sometimes if you chose Lani at the start of the game.
-Fixed Cross and Vico showing up in Blackhand Cove when you haven't recruited them yet.
-Fixed a few miscellaneous bugs in Blackhand Cove caused by the game swapping Claire and Vespa in and out of the party a bunch of times.

-Fixed being able to hookshot backwards and get stuck on some of the buildings in Westhaven when interacting with the other side of a hookshot event from the ground.
-Fixed Ashley's skills Cactus Flower and Blue Orchid being usable without a Katana (despite being Katana skills.)
-Also fixed Ashley's skills Blue Orchid, Weeping Lily, and Highland Rose not being able to crit. (DERP.)
-Fixed a minor bug during Favia's training segment where the player could reset the timer for the second part of the training by turning around and talking to Favia .
-Fixed the Gilded state not being removed at the end of combat, which led to Clark being stuck as a gold idol after the One Wierd Night quest until the player found an inn/bed or recovery crystal.
-Elmira will no longer comment on an enemy's weight gain if a calorie bomb is used without the player having recruited her.

-Fixed Ovidons being affected by Deathmark skills while eating a party member (other vorish enemies have this distinction to prevent bugginess involving too many layers of vore happening at once.)
-Fixed Clark ending up sitting on the arm of Esther's couch during the third wisp residue feeding session. He now sits on the couch like a normal bone golem.
-Fixed not needing to present Esther with a full jar the third time you offer her snacks. Also fixed a couple of minor visual bugs with that scene.
-Fixed being able to walk on air in the second floor of the Palace of Light.
-Fixed a bug where Mercy couldn't be fattened in the first fight against her and Sally if Sally was fattened first. Also fixed fattening her not triggering the permafattening switch that remembers her state for the next time she appears in battle.
-Fixed a line of Elmira dialogue sometimes appearing while feeding Valerie surpris fruits when Elmira hasn't yet been recruited.
-Fixed not receiving any increase in Arci approval for healing Fang in the Bone Dry Hideout when first prompted.
-Updated some of Fang's dialogue to include her face graphic.
-Fixed the rising heat not working properly during the boss fight with Skaramok.


-Fixed a dialogue bug in Skycastle where Jimi Bablo would mention Lani being there only when she specifically isn't present.
-Fixed being able to sell the Royal Feldwich Travel Gem.
-Fixed a couple of visual bugs during Tam'Ra's big expansion scene on Capital Bridge.

-Fixed several other tiny graphical bugs, typos, etc. throughout the game.

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KNOWN ISSUES/ONGOING BUGS

-The Bloat Meter in the Iron Gut Contests is still a little slow, but seemingly only at certain points. I'll keep looking into why this is and try to fix it up for a future patch.
-Leslie will become 'skinny' again following the conclusion of round 3 of the contest, but she will return to her proper sprite if the player exits and reenters the waterfront map. I can't figure out why this is happening, but I'll keep looking into it for next patch.

-Not really a bug, but the sprite for the Ravenous Catshark enemy is temporarily that of a Merleen since the actual sprite could not be completed (laptop troubles and yadda yadda).
-The Ravenous Catshark will receive a unique sprite (and a unique post-vore sprite) in a future update!